Girish Menezes asks do we need any more reasons to improve data quality?
The internet has brought us into an amazing future. On-demand taxis, step calculators that tell you how many calories you have burnt, GPS navigation systems providing turn-by-turn navigation wherever you are in the world and Snapchat (though nobody knows what that is good for yet).
The Pensions Dashboard now brings pension schemes into this brave new connected world.
The ultimate vision of the dashboard is that a member could, with a simple (highly secure) search, identify every pension scheme he or she is a member of and what the value of this pension scheme is.
Potentially, in a world of multiple dashboards, some providers may even add additional features to enable members to model whether their savings are sufficient, their drawdown options or even opportunities to consolidate their arrangements.
As Pension Scheme Trustees, Sponsors and Administrators, do we believe that our data and technology is fit and proper in a world of real-time transparency? Do we see this as a positive challenge to help our members or a bogeyman to avoid at all costs?
Do we really need yet another reason to improve the quality of our data? The Pensions Regulator has clear guidance on both common and conditional data.
They are also due to request data quality scores in our annual scheme returns. Accurate data also gives clarity both for ongoing valuations as well as to inform de-risking exercises. Finally, it speeds up member transactions and reduces administration errors.
The Dashboard merely builds on all of this, giving you yet another reason to invest in improving the quality of data, helping your members with their retirement choices, getting a handle on the true level of your liabilities and keeping on the right side of the law at the very same time.
The Pensions Administration Standards Association (PASA) is currently assessing what the data standards for the Pensions Dashboard should be.
This will ensure that member data can be seamlessly pulled together within a Dashboard to enable members to have a holistic view of all of their pension arrangements in the first instance and potentially to make informed savings and retirement decisions.
This is a broad church of pension professionals from across the industry and their analysis of requirements will take into account types of scheme, legacy arrangements, complexity, staging and all of the relevant factors that would result in a sensible and successful outcome for all stakeholders.
As a PASA Director myself, I am confident that the committee will recommend a solution that is pragmatic and will maximise support across stakeholders.
As participation in the Dashboard could be made mandatory, it is also essential that the starting point of data standards across pension arrangements should be achievable.
However, there are already preparations going on across the industry for this new world. Many Trustees, Sponsors and
Administrators are going way beyond the occasional Pension Regulator requested data audit report. They have clearly defined programmes in place to build a high degree of certainty around both their steady state and real-time data. Trustees and
Administrators recognise that clean data and automation are resulting in quicker turnaround times, a lower error rate and happy members.
Once available, it is relatively straightforward to then make this accessible via websites as members are increasingly open to using this functionality to support savings and retirement decisions.
The current trajectory of the dashboard project indicates that key industry players would like to launch in 2019. We already have data cleanse programmes in place to ensure that we complete our GMP reconciliations by the end of 2018. Finally, the Pension
Regulator has already given us fair warning that they will expect our data scores to be in our annual scheme returns from next year.
Do we need any more reasons to get behind the Dashboard, review our data and improve outcomes for all of our stakeholders?
Written by Girish Menezes, Board Director at PASA.
